1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is that of nursing bras with automatic nursing indicator means wherein the opening and closing of the bra cups indicates to a nursing mother which breast is to be used next in turn. No additional effort in the form of remembering to move and then manually and separately moving the indicator means is required.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nursing mothers usually alternate between the two breasts when feeding an infant, using first one breast and then the other for a number of reasons. First, it relieves a feeling of fullness if not pain. Second, it stimulates the production of milk in both breasts insuring an adequate supply. Third, it helps prevent caking of the milk in the unused breast that could pose health problems.
Traditionally, a safety pin which is manually moved from one side of the bra to the other has been used as a nursing sequence indicator. By manually moving the safety pin from the side of the bra for the breast used last to the side of the bra with the breast to be used next the nursing mother can keep track of the breast to be used next in turn. This manual procedure requires additional effort beyond that of opening and closing the bra cups for nursing. The nursing mother must remember to move the safety pin after each feeding so that the next breast to be used in turn is indicated. Unfortunately, feeding occurs at all hours of the day and night when the mother is sometimes half awake or is otherwise preoccupied and she forgets to move the safety pin nursing sequence indicator. The result is that one breast is used repeatedly and the other breast is not used. In addition, the mother is holding the baby with one hand while trying to move the safety pin nursing sequence indicator with the other hand.
Some improvement was achieved by P. G. Schawel for which she obtained U.S. Pat. No. 4,423,734, Jan. 3, 1984 for a nursing bra with nursing indicator. Her invention uses a permanently attached base member to which is attached a moveable nursing indicator. Her patent describes several embodiments of her invention all of which must be separately and manually moved in the same manner as the safety pin in addition to opening and closing the bra cups. Her indicators are locked into position by one of several means. Essentially, what her improvement does is to insure that the indicator is not lost and the mother and baby are not injured by the safety pin. The loss of the safety pin certainly has been prevented in the past by some mothers by tying the pin to the bra with a string.